The Chicago Blackhawks will go on the road to play the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers as part of the NHL’s season-opening tripleheader Oct. 7.
The game will kick off ESPN’s slate at 4 p.m., with the New York Rangers hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7 and the Los Angeles Kings hosting the Colorado Avalanche at 9:30.
The full NHL schedule will be announced at noon Wednesday on NHL Network.
The Hawks might be starting to feel like the visitors at a big homecoming game. It will be the fourth time in the last six seasons they’ve been the side note in the host team’s celebratory opener — either a championship banner raising or an expansion team’s first game.
- Oct. 7, 2025: The Panthers will raise their second straight championship banner at Amerant Bank Arena. The game also will mark Jeff Blashill’s regular-season debut as Hawks coach.
- Oct. 8, 2024: The Hawks played the foil in the first game for the Utah Hockey Club (now Utah Mammoth), losing 5-2 in front of 11,131 at the Delta Center.
- Oct. 12, 2022: The Hawks opened against the defending champion Colorado Avalanche, losing 5-2 in front of 18,143 at Ball Arena.
- Jan. 13, 2021: After winning the 2020 Stanley Cup in the Edmonton bubble, the Tampa Bay Lightning helped kick off the 56-game, pandemic-abbreviated schedule with a 5-1 victory over the Hawks at Amalie Arena.
The Hawks will open on the road for an eighth consecutive season, dating to Oct. 4, 2018, in Ottawa. It’s the second-longest such streak in franchise history, according to NHL Stats and Information. The Hawks played 12 straight season openers on the road from 1945-46 to 1956-57.
Included in the current span was then-Hawks rookie Connor Bedard, in his NHL debut, facing his idol, Sidney Crosby, and the Pittsburgh Penguins as part of another tripleheader. The Hawks’ 4-2 upset on Oct. 10, 2023, in front of 18,411 at PPG Paints Arena drew 1.43 million viewers, a regular-season record for ESPN (excluding Winter Classics).
In the second season of the current streak, the Hawks and Philadelphia Flyers faced off in Prague on Oct. 4, 2019, as part of the NHL Global Series. The Hawks lost 4-3 in front of 17,463 at O2 Arena.
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